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Pandemic personal consequences

I bought clippers last year, early in lockdown. I am not going to pay to get my hair cut till I have saved enough haircuts to pay for them.

Same I got some clippers about a year ago. Particularly spurred on after meeting a couple of mates in a garden for some drinks. I can't recall if you were allowed to at that stage but I was going a bit mad and whatevs. One of them remarked though, "I see we all have the clown hair then."

I can't see me ever going to the barbers again TBH. It's not like there's much to cut though anyway...
 
i havent been to the hairdressers since i was 21 and cut my pony tail off!
to those planning to stick with clippers i recommend forking out for digital control ones like this - worth it what you save in paying hairdressers
it means you can adjust the length by the millimeter - Wahls 4 grades are too crude - too short or too long IME
also means you can do different lengths at different points - not as hard as it sounds (see youtube)
 
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My best personal consequence today, albeit not all that pandemic related, is that I've found it ultra-easy to make the decision NOT to go for a new and much better paid-CS job! :)

:cool:

The once threatened with, now not privatised ;) Land Registry ( a great employer here, from all I've heard from pals in the LR) was offering 35 new jobs -- some in Durham, most in Swansea .... thirty-five!!!!! :eek: :cool:

If I worked there, I could walk (or cycle!) to work! (the roles were not wfh, apparantly, beyond the training stage anyway :confused: )
And I could have been picking up lunch-food from Morrisons on the way :) -- their salads are great!

Big Butts though ;) : these jobs involved :

1. Call centre work. I could answer phones for cash though, possibly ..... :confused:
Butt then .......
2. Ten thousand times as important : Minimum thirty hours (four days) per week, and!!!! the only days off you would be able to select with that, would be either Tuesdays or Thursdays** :mad: :mad: :(

**Fuck that festival-hostile shit, man (many more :mad: .... x a million at least, because no extra money at all ever is worth that. Not just ever, but never tooll!!).
(First-World "problems" etc. :oops: , BUTT!!!!! :mad: :thumbsdown: )

(Decision not yo be arsed was easy, as ever in my life .... :D ...gets drunk instead of updating CV! :p )
 
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It's an adjustment isn't it? I'm not going to complain because I feel 100% saner for being able to see people but even just having a coffee with someone is kind of knackering and I'm suddenly a lot busier. I'm trying to pace myself rather than cram things in because I can.

There is a sort of underlying ennui too. Like "is this it"? I feel very conscious of money I'm spending in odd shops or whatever. Homo economicus. Are we having fun yet?
 
I did register with a doctor a month or two ago. Is that all I need to do to be eligible for the vaccination when my turn comes? Having been out of the country for so long, I'm not sure how it works. What about people living here on various different visas? How will they get vaccinated? Is just being registered with a GP enough?

Visa status doesn't matter. If they're registered with a GP they can get referred for a jab that way, or if they know their NHS number they can book online, if they're old enough or in one of the other priority groups.

NI numbers are different - that's about national insurance, nothing to do with the NHS at all, so nothing to worry about re the jab :)
 
From what I understand they are not worrying about immigration status etc as they don’t want it to be a barrier.

I think it's simpler than that even TBH - people pay an NHS surcharge along with their visa costs, so they have the right to use the NHS even if their visa says they're not eligible for recourse to public funds and so on. I mean, for the pandemic the govt would probably make exceptions if they needed to, but they don't need to.
 
These guys aren't registered with doctors and are unlikely to register and there will be many more like them.

Really? Significant numbers to impact the general high % level of uptake? What % of the country are like that, it must be much less than 1%.
 
Could equally argue that people who have no contact with people like this could have a skewed idea of what's "normal." Anyway I am not here to argue, am just feeling frustrated at the ignorance I face when dealing with some of these people. One told me vaccines are only for citizens even though I told him they're not. Many of them have a weak grasp of English and don't follow the news here, only from back home
 
Which is why the walk in "no registration" things Puddy_Tat mentioned are so important.

They need to be widely adopted and publicised.

Yep - they are a fantastic idea, especially for people with weird work hours or chaotic lives.

Though I wonder how they work in practice? I mean you're going to have to give some details. For some people who still refuse to register with a GP even during covid that might be enough to put them off doing it too.

I do think it's going to be a really small number of people, though. I mean, 92% of homeless people are registered with a GP, and you don't even need that to get the covid vax.
 
Yep - they are a fantastic idea, especially for people with weird work hours or chaotic lives.

Though I wonder how they work in practice? I mean you're going to have to give some details. For some people who still refuse to register with a GP even during covid that might be enough to put them off doing it too.

I do think it's going to be a really small number of people, though. I mean, 92% of homeless people are registered with a GP, and you don't even need that to get the covid vax.
Yeah, I think I'm talking about a small number of people - perhaps "illegal" (yes, no such thing, I know) who are "outside of society". Take a name (any name), give them a card, and give them the jab, and tell them to come back in 12 weeks to get the second jab. It is a small number of people, but it is important.
 
Though I wonder how they work in practice? I mean you're going to have to give some details.

yes, depends whether they are checked against anything. there are some bits of health care where they don't, and i can't see many people going round for extra doses of the vaccine.

there's one branch of health care that when i have used, i have given the name 'john major' since the early 90s (using 'john smith' would have been disrespectful to the then leader of the labour party...)
 
Could equally argue that people who have no contact with people like this could have a skewed idea of what's "normal." Anyway I am not here to argue, am just feeling frustrated at the ignorance I face when dealing with some of these people. One told me vaccines are only for citizens even though I told him they're not. Many of them have a weak grasp of English and don't follow the news here, only from back home

So even a no questions asked walk in centre may struggle to reach them?Through either mistrust of “the authorities” or simply not being aware?
 
yes, depends whether they are checked against anything. there are some bits of health care where they don't, and i can't see many people going round for extra doses of the vaccine.

there's one branch of health care that when i have used, i have given the name 'john major' since the early 90s (using 'john smith' would have been disrespectful to the then leader of the labour party...)

Yeah, I guess that does work for that, so it's possible it could for this too. But I'm slightly concerned about people getting vaccinated and not followed up, too - I'm pro-vax, but it's not risk-free.

Yeah, I think I'm talking about a small number of people - perhaps "illegal" (yes, no such thing, I know) who are "outside of society". Take a name (any name), give them a card, and give them the jab, and tell them to come back in 12 weeks to get the second jab. It is a small number of people, but it is important.

It's probably more than just the people with no legal status. And TBF it's not completely unsurprising that some of them are wary. I have a white American friend who's only just registered with an NHS GP because she believes that using the NHS will somehow or other make it difficult for her to get citizenship when she applies for it in a couple of years' time - I think her theory is that it would show that she'd been a burden on public funds. She has registered now.

But that still is a really small number of people. Fortunately herd immunity is a thing, so we don't actually need to vaccinate every single person.
 
I'll forward one of the translated information leaflets, thanks. Not much else I can do.

As for me, I'm wondering what happens if I'm away in London when my time for the first vaccine comes. Can I just book at centre near where I'll be or will it have to be in the area I'm registered with a GP?
 
It's an adjustment isn't it? I'm not going to complain because I feel 100% saner for being able to see people but even just having a coffee with someone is kind of knackering and I'm suddenly a lot busier. I'm trying to pace myself rather than cram things in because I can.

There is a sort of underlying ennui too. Like "is this it"? I feel very conscious of money I'm spending in odd shops or whatever. Homo economicus. Are we having fun yet?
ha, this is exactly where i am at too. felt my mental health double with just a few meet ups socially with people. but also found it took some getting used too. and too get the anti climatic feel, and am also far busier, more focused, and tempted to go into shops all the time :)
 
Could equally argue that people who have no contact with people like this could have a skewed idea of what's "normal." Anyway I am not here to t, just feeling frustrated at the ignorance I face when dealing with some of these people. One told me vaccines are only for citizens even though I told himthey're not. Many of them have a weak gras anddon't follow the news here, only from back home

I work with a quite a few people who are born & bred white British, read the news, not particularly anti-lockdown or anything, not anti-vaccine, but who won't do PCR or surge- testing as they don't want to have their results recorded.
No issue taking lateral flow tests (in fact before they were widely available would boast they'd got a few from a mate whose girlfriend worked in a school or whatever)

I can't quite fathom the combo of mistrust & pig-headedness but it's definitely out there.

I just tell myself they aren't as bad as they could be, and enough people aren't like them, & that's all I can do.

(sorry I garbled the quote a bit)
 
I'll forward one of the translated information leaflets, thanks. Not much else I can do.

As for me, I'm wondering what happens if I'm away in London when my time for the first vaccine comes. Can I just book at centre near where I'll be or will it have to be in the area I'm registered with a GP?

It's a case of they send you an invitation to book, rather than them giving you an appointment date / time, if that's what you mean. I can't find anything specific about people who are temporarily away from home for whatever reason, or who move house between first and second vaccine.

How long are you going to be away for?

If it's only a week or so, then probably easier to book the appointment for when you're back.

It may confuse the system if you have first vaccine in one place and second somewhere else (apart from anything else, think it's considered best that you get two shots of the same vaccine, so it would be more awkward if the two places were on different types of vaccine.

If you're going to be away for a while then it may be worth ringing up and talking to someone rather than trying to do it all online - you can't be the only person to be in this sort of position...
 
Really? Significant numbers to impact the general high % level of uptake? What % of the country are like that, it must be much less than 1%.

The authorities know that the percentage uptake figures they use are not perfect because they dont actually know how many people are here. And quantifying the unknowns obviously poses its own issues. Having said that, in percentage terms I wouldnt expect it to make a huge difference to the figures, but that doesnt mean the issue should be ignored. Any vaccination system worth its salt will put considerable effort into reaching those that are hard to reach.

Here is some boring detail about the two sorts o population size figures they use when coming up with %age figures. I've taken this from the weekly spreadsheets at Statistics » COVID-19 Vaccinations

1. Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2019 mid-year population estimates are provided as the official statistics and the best publicly available population estimates. This publication uses ONS denominators for National, Regional, Integrated Care System (ICS) / Sustainability Transformation Partnership (STP) and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) geographies. These estimates are consistent with the UK COVID-19 vaccines deployment plan and therefore provide a reference point on progress. They are the most accurate estimates available at national level, however they are less robust at smaller areas and are subject to a degree of uncertainty as they are 2019 estimates based on the 2011 Census.

2. National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) denominators are also provided for Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA), Lower Tier Local Authority (LTLA) and Constituencies. NIMS denominators facilitate management of the vaccination programme at more granular levels and should be used when calculating vaccine coverage for public health purposes. NIMS denominators may provide an overcount if individuals are no longer resident in England, but may also be subject to some undercounting as they currently do not include individuals without an NHS number. Coverage can be viewed as being ‘at least’ the figures presented using the NIMS denominator. The NIMS denominators are based on the resident population and therefore people will be counted in the denominators if they live in England, even if their GP practice is in Wales or Scotland and they receive their vaccination outside of England. Therefore, when looking at lower levels of geography, areas near the borders may appear to have lower vaccine uptake rates than other areas of England.
 
Thanks. Not sure how long I'll be away yet. Anything from a week to.. well, several weeks. For people who've used the online system to book, does it show options only in your local area?
 
For people who've used the online system to book, does it show options only in your local area?

I think it only offered me one place (the football stadium in Reading) and (unlike the earliest phases) you book both first and second shot in one go.

This was the regionalised thing - I did also get a text via my GP surgery later in the day inviting me to ring up and go to a specific but slightly more local place - as I'd already booked, I declined that one.

It may be different around the country.
 
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